Strange Relations
by CrazyGirl47
Summary: A SupernaturalPower Rangers xover. Dean and Sam hear of an urban legend involving sinkholes in the town of Reefside, California—home of their cousin, Conner, and the Dino Thunder Power Rangers. Mostly humor.
1. Bored

**_Strange Relations  
_**

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own what I don't own, including _Supernatural_ and _Power Rangers: Dino Thunder._

_Summary:_ Dean and Sam hear of an urban legend involving sinkholes in the town of Reefside, California—home of their cousin, Conner, and the Dino Thunder Power Rangers.

_Author's Notes:_ Yes, it's a dreaded crossover. I know, I know. I promise to make it interesting. Humor, action, mild romantic interactions without actual shipping. I'm playing with the timing for PRDT in this—instead of taking place in the 2003—2004 school year, it takes place in the 2005—2006 year, during first season of _Supernatural._ While Dino Thunder was supposed to be set almost entirely before Christmas (at least right up until "In Your Dreams,"), I'm placing these events in early January for the sake of not screwing with the far-more-intricate _Supernatural_ timeline. The story will involve all the Dino Thunder characters, Eric McKnight, the Winchesters, and possibly a few other seasons of Power Rangers—I'm looking at Ninja Storm and Mighty Morphin in particular. I'm playing with the universes a bit—in the _Supernatural_ world, Power Rangers exist, but most non-Californians believed them to be a hoax that sparked a media frenzy. You don't need to know a lot about both shows to get the fic—just one would probably do.

_Special note:_ This was inspired by Freyja SilverWillow commenting that James Napier (Conner, on Dino Thunder) bears quite the resemblance to Jared Padalecki. Also, this is written with a lot of help from Bryn Spikess, and Freyja—though she hates crossovers—will be running through it on occasion to poke at things.

_Timeline:_ _Power Rangers Dino Thunder,_ shortly after "Ocean Alert" and before "White Thunder, Part 1." _Supernatural,_ between "The Benders" and "Shadow."

* * *

**Chapter One**

_Bored_

Dean Winchester flopped on his bed with a groan. "Man, I don't believe this. I'm _bored."_

"I'm bored" was a phrase Dean didn't often utter, especially not seriously. As a guy who'd spent much of his childhood and teen years stuck in hotel rooms watching TV with his kid brother, Dean was a master of finding ways to amuse himself. Ordinarily, he'd do some research, or skim through his father's journal, or find something on TV, or play "Try to Score with the Waitress at the Dive down the Street." The last was his favorite, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so with Sammy around. Sammy was always rolling his eyes and never leaving the hotel room and making rude comments and never leaving the hotel room and trying to make Dean feel immoral (which didn't work, but was annoying as hell) and most of all never leaving the hotel room. Right now, in fact, Sammy was, well, in the hotel room, pointedly ignoring Dean and playing with that stupid laptop.

"Tell me you've found something to hunt," Dean begged. "Please."

It had been four days since Dean and Sam had done anything remotely interesting, and they were currently holed up in a motel in Middle of Nowhere, Nevada. No longer looking for their father had freed up a lot of their time, and while researching likely hunts had been keeping them busy, they were currently in a dry spell and Dean was getting desperate for entertainment. Sammy, it seemed, still wasn't bored, and until Sam got bored Dean couldn't properly alleviate his boredom, because the only kind of fun Dean really liked to have without his brother involved Sammy leaving the damned hotel room. That was the trouble with usually making the first move—it wasn't nearly as smooth to invite a girl back to _her_ place as it was to invite a girl back to _his_ place.

"Huh?" Sam said distractedly.

"Hunt. Ghosts. Creatures. Demons. I'll settle for a…. a vengeful mailman at this point, just give me something to do," Dean growled.

Sam turned around in his chair and blinked at him. "Was I supposed to be looking for something to hunt?" he asked, sounding slightly confused.

"Yes!" Dean exclaimed, sitting up and throwing up his hands. "What are you doing, anyway? Looking for Internet porn?"

"Quite the opposite, actually," Sam said dryly. "I was just reading an email from Eric."

"Eric who?"

"Eric, our cousin Eric," Sam explained. "As in Conner and Eric."

"Really? I thought the two of them couldn't tell a keyboard from a remote control."

"They can't. According to this, some guy named Cam at Eric's new school is teaching him how to use a computer… in the hopes that he'll 'stop blowing stuff up.'"

Dean snorted. Though Sam knew the most about computers, Dean was literate enough to use one properly, whereas their cousin Eric couldn't get near a monitor without sparks shooting out. Eric McKnight and his twin brother Conner were a little more than four years younger than Sammy, and they were probably the closest family the Winchester brothers had after their father. Conner and Eric's mother was their father's sister, and while she was rather flaky, she was also extremely sweet and had always taken Sam and sometimes Dean off of John's hands whenever John was pulling a job within four hundred miles of Reefside, California. Long weeks, months even, had been spent with the McKnights, and both Dean and Sam had enjoyed seeing what it was like to be part of a "normal" family and spending time with their doting aunt and crazy cousins. Though most of their family members got vague greeting cards on the holidays, Dean and Sam had always done their best to keep in touch with the McKnights over the years.

Dean leaned over Sam's shoulder to see the monitor. Of the two, Eric had been closer to Dean, and Sam to Conner. Conner had always spent a lot of time trying to teach Sam to play soccer, whereas Dean and Eric were often play-fighting in the backyard. Dean had heard that Eric had been accepted to some private school a while back, only to be kicked out a couple weeks later, but he hadn't heard much else since.

"Apparently Eric's been accepted back into the school," Sam said, pointing at the first half of the email. Dean braced his hand against the table and began to read.

_"See, there are three tracks in our school, and I'm in Mr. Dustin's. Dustin's way cool, and he apparently talked Mr. Kanoi down. He finally managed to convince Mr. Kanoi that it wasn't my fault that all those cats attacked him. And it SO wasn't. I mean, how was I supposed to know he didn't like cats? Dustin tried to explain—something to do with Kanoi being a 'guinea pig,' but it didn't really make much sense. Anyway, I'm back in school now, and I'm in Dustin's classes again, so he's trying to help keep me out of trouble. Even Cam says Mr. Kanoi might have overreacted, and he's Mr. Kanoi's son. Cam said Mr. Kanoi has his reasons, is all, but Cam did say that if I get kicked out again, he might be able to get me in at this other school run by his buddy Hunter that has the same sort of classes._

_"Anyway, I really miss having Conner with me, even though Kyle and Tally are here. Kyle's off in Mr. Shane's class, and Tally's in Miss Tori's, though, so we don't get to see each other as much as I'd like. I keep asking Conner to come sign up with me—I know he'd really like Dustin, the guy's so cool—and at first Conner was like 'maybe after soccer season' but now he's gotten kind of weird. Says he thinks he'll finish high school in Reefside but he never really says why. Apparently he's got these new friends, too, and one of them's this chick named Kira who always blew me off whenever I used to try to ask her out (she's really hot, AND she's in a band) and the other one, Ethan, he's this total computer geek who tutored me back in middle school. Conner says he met them in detention or something. They sound cool, though, I guess. Conner says Ethan reminds him of you, Sam; Ethan's always going on about urban legends and computer stuff._

_"Oh, Conner told me to ask you if you've ever heard anything about any urban legends in Reefside. Ethan said there's all these horror stories about sinkholes in the area and how people fall into them and never come out. Conner says while he was in detention with Kira and Ethan their teacher sent them into the woods near the museum to find something prehistoric and they actually DID fall into a sinkhole and couldn't climb out and had to wander through these tunnels for, like, ever before they finally got out. Then he started to say something about being chased, but then he changed the subject and wouldn't tell me anything else. I think he was messing with me, but I thought I'd tell you about it and see what you'd heard, and Conner said that if you do have any information about those tunnels he really needs to know cuz a friend of his lives way out in the woods near where they fell in._

_"Well, I need to go. Dustin's taking a bunch of us to a motocross rally and Blake Bradley's gonna be there—apparently he's good buddies with Dustin, which is just cool beyond belief. Say hi to Dean and Uncle Johnny for me. And tell Dean to get an email address so I can write to him, too. This computer stuff isn't as hard as it looks."_

Dean frowned and reread the bit about urban legends. "Sinkholes? What's that all about?"

"I don't know," Sam said with a shrug. "Let me find some local websites."

Dean nodded and pulled up a chair as Sam pulled up his preferred search engine. A moment later, they were cruising "The Dark Side of Reefside," a site all about legends surrounding the town.

"Here we go," Sam muttered. Clearing his throat, he began to read the paragraphs at the top of the page aloud. "'Welcome to The Dark Side of Reefside, where our forums and articles explore all of the strange happenings of the city of Reefside and the surrounding area. Don't forget to read our rules, and since no one ever listens when we say that, KEEP IN MIND that NO Power Ranger discussions are allowed in ANY forums EXCEPT the forum specifically FOR Power Rangers. Any member who breaks this rule will have their account suspended and their posts relating to the subject deleted. We're here to talk about urban legends and historical anomalies, people, not superheroes. Unless you can tie them to a specific legend, leave it in the PR forum.'"

"Power Rangers? What a bunch of nerds," Dean scoffed. Like most people in the country, Dean had heard of the Power Rangers—after all, there were TV shows and comic books and Halloween costumes and so on and so forth. As far as Dean knew, the Power Rangers were supposed to be the world's first superheroes, fighting aliens and monsters in multicolored spandex. The last he'd heard, the Rangers had disappeared for a year and then returned from outer space to save the city of Angel Grove and revealed their identities in the process, but that was years ago. Dean was of the opinion that it was all some scheme to sell action figures.

Sam shrugged and began scrolling through the list of forums. "Let's see here… under 'Power Rangers,' we have 'General Power Ranger Discussions,' 'Monster Sightings,' 'Ranger Sightings,' and 'Secret Identity Speculations.'"

"Geek alert," Dean announced.

Sam smiled. "Then we have the other forums… 'Haunted Graveyards,' 'Unexplained Phenomena at the Beach,' 'The Abandoned Warehouse District…' Here we go, 'Frightening Forest Lore.'" Sam clicked the link and waited for the page to load. "Sinkhole Scares" was at the top of the list, with the most recent post—dated several weeks ago—called "Stay OUT of the Forest!!!" by "Master Hacker." Sam clicked on the post.

_"Okay, so there I was with this guy and girl wandering around in the woods trying to find something prehistoric as part of my detention, and I'm trying to tell them about how I heard about the sinkholes on this site, and the next thing I know we're all six feet under. More than six feet under, actually; the guy, Conner, he tried to climb up and get help and landed on his butt two seconds later, and he's really athletic, this total soccer jock…"_

"Looks like this is Conner's friend Ethan," Dean commented.

"Yep," Sam agreed, copying the post and pasting it into a Word document—something he'd picked up at college, where failing Internet service could mean failing grades. After he'd saved Ethan's post, they continued to read.

_"So then we realize we're in a tunnel, and figure we might as well see where it leads, since we can't get out. It took us AGES to find an exit. When we did… I know this sounds crazy, but these freaky lizard monsters chased us clear out of the woods! We were almost killed. We all agreed not to say anything, but I thought I should warn everyone to stay out of the woods by the museum. Those monsters were dangerous, not to mention we could have been lost in the tunnels for days before anyone found us if we hadn't finally found an opening. I'm still shaking, even though we're on our way back to school now."_

Dean leaned back in his chair. "Lizard monsters?"

Sam shrugged. "Could be anything."

"Could be a kid trying to be King Dork of Lame-ass Mountain."

Sam smiled sardonically. "When is it ever anything that simple?"

"Yeah." Dean sighed, frowning thoughtfully. "But I'll tell you this—something about this doesn't smell right."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Eric and Conner. Those two have always been closer than, well, me and you. And now Eric's saying Conner's got these new friends—friends who don't really sound like Conner's type of crowd. And Conner's turned down going to Eric's school without telling Eric why. Then there's that thing where Conner 'started to say something about being chased' and changed the subject. Doesn't sound like Conner. The kid's an open book. Especially to Eric."

Sam digested this. "Yeah, but… if Conner's trying to keep it a secret, why would his friend post all about it on a webpage?"

"I don't know. But that kid's post sounded weird too. Part of his detention, he's wandering around in the woods near the museum? Looking for something prehistoric? Sounds a little odd. Why's he out of the school for detention? The museum and the school are pretty far away, if I remember correctly. And Ethan made it sound like they were unsupervised in the woods, too. Just him and two classmates roaming the woods as punishment?"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You think they were _sent_ into the woods to be chased by lizard creatures?"

"It's possible. It's also possible that we're making a big deal out of nothing. Either way, I guess we're heading to Reefside."

"Just like that?" Sam asked, a little unhappily. Unlike Dean, Sam was beginning to enjoy having a little quiet time, a reprieve from the psychotic days since he'd left Palo Alto.

"Sam, we've got possible deadly creatures in our cousins' backyard. We should swing by, do some digging, get Aunt Becky to make us a few meals. And more importantly…" Dean grinned. "I'm _bored."_


	2. A Nice, Safe, Quiet Town

**Chapter Two**

_A Nice, Safe, Quiet Town_

"Question," Sam said as Dean guided the Impala onto the off-ramp. "Are we here because you really think there might be something to hunt, or are we here because Aunt Becky's a good cook and you were bored out of your skull?"

"Does it matter? We're here," Dean pointed out. "Might as well enjoy ourselves while we're checking out the lizard monsters."

Sam frowned. While the email from Eric had seemed off, he still wasn't sure this was anything more than Dean desperate for an activity and a hot meal. _Still,_ he told himself, _it couldn't hurt. Haven't seen Conner and Eric in a while. And Reefside's always been a nice, safe, quiet—_

"Damn, what happened there?" Dean demanded as they paused at a red light. Dean gestured down a roped-off side street. The buildings on either side had several gaping holes, and the remaining steel and glass was scraped and burned, as though some gigantic creature had strolled down the road with a pitchfork and a torch in each hand. A couple of the cars parked on the side of the street had been completely crushed—they might as well have been imported from local junkyard post-compression. The brothers didn't have time to process all of the destruction before someone behind them beeped their horn and Dean put his foot on the gas automatically. Sam's final glimpse was of passers-by moving past, calmly avoiding the roadblock, a few merely glancing up and shaking their heads before hurrying on, but most paying the demolished road no heed.

"Weird. Everyone was just minding their own business. Like that happens every day," Sam said, frowning.

"Hope that wasn't the sinkhole monster," Dean joked dryly.

Sam shook his head decisively; nothing they'd come across could cause scorch and claw marks forty feet off the ground. "Must have been an earthquake or something. This _is_ California."

Dean grinned. "I forgot you were living out here for so long. Tell me, did you wet your pants during every earthquake, or just the big ones?"

"Are you _ever_ going to stop bringing that up? I was _five!"_ Sam growled.

"I know. I was there. Cleaning up after my soaking wet brother."

Sam rolled his eyes and pulled out his cell. "I'm going to call Aunt Becky. Make sure they're home." He started scrolling through his address book, looking for the proper entry.

_"I_ never wet _myself_ during an earthquake," Dean muttered under his breath. _"Especially_ not while clinging to my older brother's leg."

Sam sighed and hit the send button, ignoring Dean as he continued to rant about Sam's childhood sins. Aunt Becky answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, Aunt Becky, it's Sam!" he said cheerfully, relieved when Dean shut up and started straining to hear.

"Sam, hi! How've you been? Haven't seen you in a few months…"

"Yeah, I know. But, um, I'm actually in town right now. With Dean."

"You and Dean both? Really? Is your daddy with you?"

"No, actually, he's… on a job…"

"Oh. I see." She paused for a second. "So what are you two up to?"

"We're, you know, just… hanging out. Road tripping. Wondered if you'd mind putting up with us for a few days."

"Honey, you know you're always welcome here! But why aren't you at school?"

"Oh, um… I'm taking some time off, is all. Before law school." Sam winced. He hadn't talked to his aunt or cousins since Jessica's death, and he wasn't looking forward to explaining.

"I see. Well, come on by. I'll make some of those fried potatoes you boys like for dinner."

"Did she say fried potatoes?" Dean asked hopefully.

Sam nodded eagerly, caught himself, and returned to his phone call. "Thanks, Aunt Becky. Are Conner and Eric around?"

"No, Eric's back in Blue Bay Harbor, living in the dorms at that school of his with Kyle and Tally. Conner's out—I think he went to that café again. Hayley's Cyberspace."

"Over on Broad Street?" Sam had gone there last summer, when he'd been visiting and had needed a place to register for fall classes; no one in the McKnight family had bothered to get an Internet connection.

"Yeah. He's been hanging out there a lot lately."

Sam frowned. "Conner can barely tell a monitor from a keyboard, and he's hanging out at a cyber café?"

"Yes, well, those new friends of his always meet up there. If he's not playing soccer, he's there, and I don't think he had a game or practice today. I'd have to check his schedule to be sure, but damned if I can remember where it is. Tell you what—why don't you swing by and pick him up? Come back here around five-thirty, six?"

Sam checked his watch. It was only a little before four. "Yeah, sure, we can do that. We'll see you soon."

"Okay. Love you, sweetie."

"Love you too."

Sam hung up the phone, turned to Dean, and thrust his fists in the air. _"Fried potatoes!"_ he shouted.

"YES!" Dean roared.

The two of them went on screaming for a moment like sports fans after the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl before suddenly calming down, almost perfectly straight-faced but definitely extremely cheerful. It had been months since Sam had eaten any "real food," and much, much longer for Dean.

"Okay," Sam said. "She said to drop by between five-thirty and six. Wanted us to go by Hayley's Cyberspace and pick up Conner."

"Where's that at?"

"Make a left at the next light." Unlike Dean, who had only made three or four trips to Reefside in the past five years, Sam had been swinging by every few months; staying with his aunt and cousins had made him feel a lot better about the separation from his father and Dean. He'd gotten to know the town fairly well, hanging out with Conner and Eric. Hayley's Cyberspace had only cropped up within the past year or two, and neither Conner nor Eric had ever been there, to Sam's knowledge. Conner's new hangout had come as quite a surprise. Hell, it wouldn't surprise him if Conner's new hangout had even come as a surprise to Conner. "Wonder what he's doing at a cyber café all the time."

"Must be that Ethan kid's influence," Dean said with a shrug, grinning slightly, thoughts of hot homemade dinner driving away visions of sinkhole monsters and demolished buildings.

They arrived at the café within fifteen minutes; the classic Impala turned the heads of several teenagers milling about in the parking lot, particularly that of a blond girl in an expensive pink sweater, whose eyes swept over the car and focused sharply on the Kansas license plates. She stared blatantly at Sam and Dean as they climbed out and headed inside.

Automatically the two brothers paused inside the door and scanned the café, taking in the arcade games, foosball table, television, tables, couches and computers. Nearly everyone was under the age of twenty, with the exception of one spiky-haired guy at the counter who looked closer to Dean's age, though he was chatting to a black boy in all-blue clothes who couldn't have been a day over eighteen. The woman behind the counter was the only other person who looked like she might just be legally able to drink.

"This music sucks," Dean muttered, nodding at the band onstage. It was pop, the sort of wannabe-rock sung by people like Avril Lavigne that made Dean's brain immediately press play on a mental tape deck containing a mixed tape of proper rock in the hopes of drowning out the insult to Metallica. Despite the less-than-pleasurable tunes, Dean couldn't help checking out the girl strumming an acoustic guitar and singing into the microphone. She was definitely hot, and she met his eyes while she sang, looking him over curiously and a little appreciatively.

"Can I get you guys anything?" Dean's view was disrupted by a Hispanic teen wearing an apron and balancing a tray of dirty glasses against his hip, smiling at them but looking a little curious as well. Dean would guess they didn't get a lot of college-aged kids in the café, especially not ones so obviously from out of town.

"Beer," Dean told him. "Whatever you have on tap."

The kid raised an eyebrow. "This is a café, man."

Dean frowned. "No beer?"

"Yeah, no beer," he replied in amusement. "I'm not even legally old enough to serve alcohol."

Dean stared at him in horror, and Sam stifled a laugh as he came to Dean's rescue. "I'll have a large macchiato, he'll have a medium frappuccino," Sam told him.

"Sure. But you guys should try the smoothies," the kid replied. "Let me know if you need anything else. Name's Trent."

"Sure thing, Trent," Dean said sourly. He turned to look at Sam in disbelief. "A fratalino?" Sam shrugged. "Spent a lot of time at poetry readings, eh?"

Sam rolled his eyes. Before Dean could say anything, Sam asked, "D'you see Conner?"

"Nope. Maybe he's in the bathroom or something. Or maybe he hasn't gotten here yet." Under his breath, Dean added, "Or maybe he's out looking for a _beer."_

Sam grinned. "Somehow, I doubt it."

They claimed a table and waited for their drinks, which were brought over not by Trent but by the redheaded twenty-something woman. "Hello," she said cheerfully. "Who had the macchiato?"

"That would be College Boy," Dean said, stabbing a finger at Sam.

"Ah." She set down their drinks. "Well, welcome to Hayley's Cyberspace. I'm Hayley—"

_"The_ Hayley?" Dean asked.

"Yup. Just let me or Trent know if you need anything."

"We will," Dean promised, looking suspiciously into his frappuccino. Dean was a coffee guy. He liked his coffee strong and black with the occasional packet of sugar, depending on how well-made the coffee was. This mutant, frozen coffee-wannabe was almost insulting.

"Actually," Sam said, shooting Dean a warning look, "we were wondering if you know a kid named Conner McKnight. Brown hair, tall—"

"Sure, I know Conner. He's in here all the time." She glanced over her shoulder. "Hey, Tommy! Ethan! Have you seen Conner today?"

To Sam and Dean's surprise, the older guy was the one who answered. "He got detention," he replied. "I don't know for what, but Randall probably kept him until four. He said he'd meet us here."

"It was for his fourth tardy this week," the kid next to him added. He nudged the older guy. "Good thing Randall doesn't do that to you, eh, Dr. O?"

Dr. O rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Ethan. I was almost on time just yesterday, I'll have you know."

"Only _you_ would see 'almost on time yesterday' as an achievement," Hayley cracked affectionately, then turned back to Sam and Dean. "Well, there you have it. You friends of Conner's?"

"Yeah," Sam replied. "How much do we owe you?"

"Six seventy-five."

_"How_ much?" Dean spluttered incredulously. Hayley smiled apologetically. Dean sighed and started to pull a credit card out of his wallet, but Sam hastily intervened.

"I got this one, dude." Sam handed Hayley a ten-dollar bill. "Keep the change."

"Thanks," she said warmly. "Well, like I said, call me if you need me."

"Will do. Oh, hey, one last thing," Dean said. "The girl onstage, what's her name?"

"Oh, that's Kira Ford. She's got quite the local following."

"Thanks."

Hayley wandered off. "Dude," Sam admonished, "I don't think it's a good idea to pay for drinks at our cousin's favorite hangout with a credit card that says 'Tony Iommi' on it."

"Right. Whatever," Dean said absently, watching Dr. O, who was bobbing his head to Kira's song. Dean wondered how he knew Conner. "So we've found Kira and Ethan—wonder who that guy is? The Dr. O guy?"

"No idea. Kira's older brother, maybe?"

Dean shrugged. "What do you think? Should we try to chat them up, or wait for Conner?"

"Wait for Conner," Sam said decisively. "It'll probably look better if we let him introduce us, rather than asking random questions as if we're total strangers and then pretending we're surprised when we find out they know Conner."

Dean frowned. "This is going to get weird. Hunting on Conner and Eric's turf."

Sam nodded. "Tell me about it." He sipped at his macchiato, watching as Kira finished her song and climbed down from the stage, making a beeline straight for Ethan and Dr. O. The three of them chatted easily, obviously close friends. Hayley went over shortly after, joining the conversation. Something was off, but Sam couldn't for the life of him put his finger on what.

"How's your frappuccino?" he asked Dean, simply to make small talk.

Dean had forgotten the drink entirely; he took a quick gulp and his eyes widened in surprise. "Damn, this is _good."_ Dean proceeded to take a several large swallows, then clutched his forehead in pain.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"Ugh—brain freeze."

Sam was about to make a crack about Dean's brain when he saw Conner walk in, backpack on one shoulder, soccer ball under his arm. His hair had gotten a lot shaggier since Sam had seen him last, and he seemed… stronger, somehow. More confident.

Sam tried to catch his eye, but he was too busy waving at Kira, who hadn't noticed him yet, mostly because she was frowning at Dean, who was smiling shamelessly at her. Dr. O finally spotted Conner and called out a greeting to him; Ethan, Hayley and Kira followed suit. Conner headed for them, pausing to exchange a word with Trent. Exasperated, Sam called, "Conner!"

Conner's face lit up when he spotted them. "Sam!" Conner yelled happily. "Dean!"

"Dude!" all three of them exclaimed in creepily perfect unison. Out of sheer habit, Sam held out his hand to Conner and they performed the three-minute secret ritual handshake they'd invented roughly seven years ago. Dean rolled his eyes, looking a little embarrassed, but it didn't stop him from doing the same thing as soon as Sam was finished.

"What are you guys doing here?" Conner asked eagerly.

"Just passing through, thought we'd stop off for a few days," Sam explained. "Your mom told us you were here."

"This is so awesome!" Conner said enthusiastically. "I haven't seen you since summer. And Dean, what was it, last Easter?"

"Yeah," Dean said. "How's your car?"

"Still purring," Conner replied proudly. "I thought that Impala in the parking lot looked familiar!"

"And to think, there was a time when you couldn't tell a Chevy from a Ford," Dean said, wiping away a fake tear.

"Yeah, when I was five!" Conner exclaimed indignantly.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Do we have to have this exact same discussion every time we hang out?"

"I'm just saying I'm glad I could fix him before he grew up like you," Dean said innocently.

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" Sam demanded.

"Oh, nothing," Dean said, smirking.

Sam started to retort, but Conner interrupted. "Hey, guys, come on. I want you to meet some friends of mine."

* * *

_End Notes:_ I know, the ending was abrupt, but it was either end it here or write an eight-thousand-word second chapter. Next one will be up soon.

Tony Iommi plays guitar for Black Sabbath, one of Dean's preferred bands.

No, I am not completely against Kira's music. It's not bad, in my opinion, even though it's not my kind of thing. However, Dean's a classic rock junky; I couldn't see him liking Kira's music.


	3. Conner's New Crew

**Chapter Three**

_Conner's New Crew_

Conner grabbed Sam's arm with his free hand and pulled Sam over to Dr. O, Ethan, Kira and Hayley, who watched Conner and Sam approach, Dean right behind. Dean was pleased to note that Kira was looking at Dean in particular.

"Guys," Conner told Sam and Dean, "these are my friends. This is Kira and Ethan, that's Hayley, and that's Dr. O."

"You can call me Tommy," Dr. O said quickly. "You're friends of Conner?"

"They're my cousins," Conner explained. "This is Sam and Dean Winchester."

"Oh, so _that's_ why you were asking about Conner," Hayley said. Sam nodded.

"_Cousins?"_ Kira repeated, recoiling. She looked like she'd just found out they were mad slashers. "As in, you all share actual DNA?"

"Afraid so," Sam joked. Kira grimaced slightly and kept her gaze far from either brother, as if Sam and Dean were painful to look at. Dean frowned, a little put out. "How do you guys know each other?" Sam asked.

"Kira and Ethan are in some of my classes," Conner told him. "And Dr. O's my science teacher."

Sam and Dean exchanged glances. "Science teacher?" Dean repeated dubiously. Tommy shifted uncomfortably.

"Uh-huh," Conner said, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to be on good enough terms with one's science teacher as to introduce them to one's family. "And Hayley's a friend of his."

"I see," Sam said slowly.

"How long are you in town for?" Hayley asked quickly, as if sensing their confusion and fighting to cover it up.

"As long as Aunt Becky will put up with us," Dean told her. Conner, Sam and Dean grabbed chairs from the closest table and sat down, facing the group at the counter. "Or until we eat her out of house and home."

"How's Uncle Johnny?" Conner asked.

"Oh, he's… fine," Sam lied. "We… um… we got an email from Eric."

"Eric can use email now?" Conner asked in surprise. "Whoa. He's spending way too much time with that Cam guy."

"I'm trying to teach Conner how to use email himself," Ethan said.

"Not on one of my computers, you're not," Hayley said emphatically.

"That was an _accident,"_ Conner said loudly.

"School computers only," Ethan assured her.

"School computers?" Tommy repeated, frowning. "Come on, Ethan, I store all sorts of things in that system."

"What, like I'd be using _mine_ for something that dangerous? I suggest you start making backup copies of anything saved to something electronic at Reefside High."

"But you guys are into computers?" Hayley asked, nodding at Sam and Dean.

"No, just Sam," Dean said. "I mean, I can do a few things with them, but Sam's a regular hacker."

"Ah, so that freak-computer-accident-prone thing doesn't run in the family?" Ethan asked.

"No, it does. Sam's just the family freak," Dean explained. Sam punched his shoulder.

"Oh, hey," Sam said casually. "Eric mentioned some weird sinkhole urban legend. Said you wanted to know what we'd heard about it."

To Sam and Dean's surprise, all five of them immediately stiffened, the others looking quickly and questioningly at Conner. "Oh, _that,"_ Conner said, a little nervously. "That was nothing. I was just freaked; blew it out of proportion."

"Getting lost in a maze of tunnels after falling into a sinkhole? That'd freak anybody out," Sam said calmly. Both Winchesters' radar was on high alert now. "Eric said something about being chased, too—something about lizard monsters?"

Conner frowned. "I never said anything about lizard monsters," he said, partly to Sam and Dean but mostly to Tommy, Hayley, Kira and Ethan.

"Come on, Sam, don't you remember? That lizard thing was in a post on one of the web pages we checked out," Dean chided. "Posted by… what was his name…? Master Hacker, right?"

"Yeah," Sam said, fighting the urge to grin at the looks on Conner's friends' faces. A few eyes darted in Ethan's direction accusingly. "That's right. Someone _else_ said that about lizard monsters."

"Heh, well, don't worry about it," Conner said. To his friends, he added, "Sam and Dean are really into ghost stories and mysteries. Love them. Their dad's a mystery buff, too."

"We were actually thinking of checking out those sinkholes," Dean said nonchalantly.

"NO!" all five of them yelled.

They all cringed simultaneously, looking at each other worriedly while struggling to be as discreet about it as possible. They failed miserably, of course.

"Why not?" Sam asked, feigning confusion.

"Because those sinkholes are still out there," Tommy said, surprisingly easily. _The man recovers quick,_ Sam thought with interest. "They're dangerous. Conner, Kira and Ethan were lucky they didn't get hurt."

"I thought you said there were no lizard monsters," Dean pointed out.

"I meant falling into a giant sinkhole," Tommy clarified calmly. "You could break a leg doing that. Especially since you're not from around here—you don't know the forest as well as the natives."

"Yeah? You ever fall into a sinkhole yourself?" Dean asked.

"Had a couple of close calls," Tommy replied. "They're everywhere out there."

"Sam and I can take care of ourselves, don't worry," Dean said lightly. "We'll be fine."

"But… maybe there _were_ lizard monsters," Kira said suddenly.

Dean looked at her curiously; she'd been very quiet ever since the DNA remark. "You think so?"

"Well, I don't know about monsters, but maybe…" Kira looked at Tommy, as though for confirmation. Neither Sam nor Dean could be sure, but both thought they saw him nod slightly. "Maybe whoever made that post ran into Tyrannodrones."

"Tyrannodrones?" Dean and Sam repeated blankly.

Kira nodded. "When was that post made, do you know?"

"Early September," Dean replied.

"That's about when the Rangers showed up," Kira said. "So if it was before anyone knew what a Tyrannodrone was, they might call it a 'freaky lizard monster.'"

Tommy nodded grimly. "So you should definitely stay out of the woods, if Tyrannodrones are running around in there."

"Okay, but what's a Tyrannodrone?" Sam asked.

"That's right, you're not from around here," Kira said. "They're these creepy humanoid dinosaur mutants. The Rangers fight them a lot."

"The Rangers… as in, the _Power_ Rangers?" Dean asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. Reefside's got its own Power Rangers, didn't you know?" Conner asked.

"Don't be ridiculous. Power Rangers don't exist," Dean scoffed.

There was a long silence from Tommy, Hayley, Conner, Kira and Ethan. A somehow… _ugly_ silence.

"I'm afraid they do," Tommy said finally with an obviously forced smile. "They showed up last fall and they've been here ever since. They're called the Dino Power Rangers, or the Dino Thunder Power Rangers, because their zords and weapons are dinosaur-based and so are some of the monsters they fight."

Dean and Sam stared at him. "No. Way," Dean said. "Just… no way."

"You drove all the way here," Hayley said. "Surely you must have seen some of the property damage from the zord fights?"

The brothers looked at each other, both recalling the heavily damaged street and the way none of the locals had seemed particularly perturbed by it. "We figured it was just an earthquake or something," Sam said slowly.

"Nope. You'll see a lot of that sort of damage around town, especially in the forest, the quarry, and the abandoned warehouse district, although sometimes they fight in more populated areas," Hayley said. "I've even had a monster or two in here."

"And didn't you hear about Kylee Styles being attacked by a monster?" Kira asked. "It was all over the national news."

"Who?" Dean asked blankly.

"Pop singer," Sam explained. Dean nodded. "I heard, but I just figured it was some sort of publicity stunt or something," Sam continued. "I really didn't think there were actual Power Rangers. I mean, sure, the D&D crowd at Stanford mentioned them and a couple of the LARPers—"

"Could you speak English?" Dean asked, rolling his eyes.

"Dungeons and Dragons and Live Action Roll Players," Ethan explained.

"Oh. So the geeks, then."

Ethan bristled. Seeing this, Sam elbowed Dean, hard. Dean gave him a "What?" sort of look.

"Forgive Dean," Sam said. "He's a bit of an idiot sometimes."

"So's Conner," Ethan said, shrugging it off.

"Hey!" Conner complained.

"Anyway, you guys are _serious?"_ Sam pressed. "You _actually_ have Power Rangers here?"

"It came as a shock to me, too," called Trent, coming over to them and punching buttons on the nearby register. "I moved here right after the attacks started. They still freak me out."

"Why do the Rangers freak you out? They're the good guys," Conner said angrily.

"I know. It's just… anybody driving a robot big enough to squash me and not notice it afterwards tends to freak me out," Trent replied dryly. "But hey, still, superheroes, right? They're cool. Just a little nerve-wracking." He nodded at the register. "Hayley, we're low on register tape."

"We'll have more on the truck tonight," Hayley told him. "Turn off the auto receipt print feature, okay? Just give them out to the people who ask."

"Gotcha." Trent keyed in a command and turned back to Sam and Dean. "Anyway, you'll get used to them. They're actually really cool. I got to meet them once."

"Really?" Dean asked, a little doubtfully.

"Yeah. They saved my life. Remember, Dr. O? That day you gave me a ride home?"

"Yeah. Fun."

Trent nodded. "I'll be back. Gotta drop this off," he said, holding up the long tab belonging to one of the local teens.

"So you got to meet them, too?" Sam asked Tommy curiously.

Tommy shrugged. "Yeah. Most everyone in Reefside has seen them at some point."

"You don't sound that excited," Sam said.

He smiled. "I went to high school in Angel Grove. Home of the originals, you know? It was quite an experience. You get used to it after a while. Pretty soon, they're not cool giant robots. They're things that just might step on your car."

"Sam, I think it's time we left," Dean said suddenly, looking mortified.

"Don't worry, dude, the Rangers will take good care of that Impala," Conner assured him.

"So you know all about Power Rangers," Sam said to Tommy.

Tommy shrugged again. "As much as anyone from Angel Grove does. They might as well be gods there."

"Well, I'll believe it when I see it," Dean said, now glancing out the window and keeping a firm eye on his car. A couple of teenagers had gotten too close, but no giant robots were in the vicinity.

"You probably will see it," Hayley told him. "It's been, what, three days since the last monster attack? If you're here for any length of time, there'll be a major showdown. Be careful during the evacuation orders, though. They're tricky."

"Evacuation orders…?" Sam asked.

"We used to do them in Angel Grove sometimes," Tommy said. "Basically, they anticipate a monster's course and order all buildings in the vicinity to evacuate. Mostly it's just downtown, the business district—you know, the heavily populated areas."

"Shouldn't people stay indoors during that sort of thing?" Sam asked incredulously.

Tommy shook his head. "You would think so, but it's a lot safer and easier to dodge a zord than it is to be in a collapsing building. Besides, during zord fights, there's a lot of weaponry going off—blasters, weird mutant projectiles. Most of it hits at the monster's shoulder level, which is about thirty stories up. So you'd rather be by its feet, which are easier to dodge than the roof right above your head. Besides, they built a lot of bomb shelters in the area after the Rangers' first appearances—"

"Yeah, we were thinking of getting a subway train through here about five years ago, and they abandoned the project halfway through," Kira said. "So they just converted some of the half-finished tunnels."

Tommy nodded. "There's one about every two blocks in the bigger areas. So you don't have to go far."

"Sounds smart," Sam commented.

"Angel Grove had five years to figure that sort of thing out," Tommy said wryly. "Every town that gets Power Rangers now follows their lead. Carrington, the ex-mayor of Angel Grove, has become a private consultant for towns that get Rangers. But don't worry. Evacuations are just for zord fights. Regular monster attack—which means if it's under forty feet tall, or if it's just Tyrannodrones or Triptoids—you just seek shelter and wait and see if your building gets an evacuation order."

"That is absolutely nuts," Dean muttered. "Full-on loony bin."

"Triptoids?" Sam asked.

"They're like Tyrannodrones, basically. Mindless minions of the head honcho. They look different, but if you see one, you'll have no problem realizing what it is," Ethan told him. He shot an apologetic look at the others, which wasn't lost on Sam or Dean but wasn't readily explainable. Kira smiled at him and patted his knee. Conner shrugged and smiled.

"You guys are all really serious, aren't you," Dean said suddenly. "About this Power Ranger thing."

The five stared at him. For a _very_ long time.

"Dead serious," Tommy said quietly.

"Incredibly dead serious," Conner added.

"Totally."

"Yep."

"Mm-hmm."

Dean shook his head and laughed. "Power Rangers. Jeez, what next?"

"Personally, I'm hoping for Ninja Turtles," Sam joked.

Tommy started to say something, then stopped. "Well, you never know," he said nonchalantly.

"Tell me there aren't any Ninja Turtles here," Dean groaned.

"There aren't," Hayley assured him. "Just Power Rangers."

Conner and Ethan were now looking at Tommy with strangely hopeful expressions. Hayley cleared her throat. "Speaking of superheroes—you guys going to help with the truck tonight?"

"Sure," Tommy said.

"I'm in," Kira agreed, glancing at Trent.

"I'll be there," Ethan said.

"I should actually probably do the family thing," Conner said apologetically. "Next time, though, I promise."

"Nonsense," Dean said, clapping Conner on the back. "We don't mind. In fact, if you want some help—"

"Oh, no, I couldn't ask you to do that," Hayley said.

"It's no trouble," Sam insisted. Between Power Rangers and their shiftiness about the sinkholes, it was obvious that Sam and Dean were going to need to spend more time not only with Conner, but with his motley assortment of friends.

"Well…" Hayley looked at Tommy. He shrugged. "Okay. Should be here about nine."

"Gives us time to eat dinner," Dean said. "Your mom said five-thirty or six. She's making fried potatoes."

"Yes!" Conner exclaimed. "She hasn't made those since the last time Sam was in town. She doesn't cook as much, now that it's just me and her and I'm…"

"What?" Sam prompted.

"Well, I've been busy a lot more," Conner said sheepishly. "With, you know… soccer."

"You were in soccer last year, weren't you?" Sam asked.

"Well… yeah. But… we're working harder this year. I had a shot with the Reefside Wave a couple months ago, and I want to stay in top form."

"The Reefside Wave, wow," Sam said, impressed. "I heard they've got a shot at—" A loud series of tuneful beeps interrupted him. "What was _that?"_

Hayley, Tommy, Conner, Kira and Ethan had just frozen, while Sam and Dean were looking around curiously for the source of an odd beeping noise. Sam looked from one completely still member of the group to the next—and then suddenly he couldn't meet anyone's eyes, because they were all darting "secret" glances at each other.

"My cell phone," Hayley said, smooth as could be if it weren't for the gap in her timing. She pulled a mobile phone from her pocket. "Oh, it's Billy. I'd better take this in the back. Tommy, you want to talk to him?"

"Yeah, sure," Tommy said eagerly, and the two vanished into the backroom.

"Billy another friend of yours, Conner?" Dean asked.

"Huh? No. I mean… no. He must be a friend of theirs."

"From college or the school or something," Kira added.

Dean briefly contemplated taking advantage of Tommy and Hayley's absence by asking a bit more about their relationship to the three teens, but he found himself studying the three of them instead. They were all suddenly quiet, alert, nervous—waiting for something.

"So," Sam began, but before he could finish, Hayley and Tommy had returned. Conner, Kira and Ethan looked up at Tommy expectantly.

"Kira, Ethan—Billy says they've got those new fossils in at the museum, if you want to see them for your science project," Tommy said. "He's closing down in about a half hour, though—we should head over there now."

"Good idea," Ethan said quickly, stuffing his laptop into his book bag. "You gonna give us a ride?"

"Sure."

Conner bit his lip as Kira gulped the last of her apple juice and slung her guitar onto her shoulder and Ethan slid on the straps of his book bag. Tommy snagged a black backpack from behind the bar. The speed at which they packed up was amazing. "So…" Conner said.

Tommy clapped him on the shoulder. "We'll see you tonight, Conner."

"You sure?" Conner asked.

"We'll call you if we need your help on the lab report," Ethan told him.

"Okay," Conner said, looking distinctly unhappy.

"Nice meeting you guys," Kira called to Sam and Dean, already heading for the door.

"Yeah, see you tonight!" Ethan said.

"Have fun," Tommy added. With a last nod at Hayley, Tommy followed Kira and Ethan out the door.

"That was abrupt," Dean muttered, looking at Hayley, who had gone to talk to Trent.

"Yeah, well, they've been waiting for that fossil shipment for a while, and the project's due tomorrow," Conner said. "Sorry you couldn't spend more time with them. You'll really like them, once you get to know them."

Dean nodded. "So… tell us more about these killer sinkholes, Conner."

Conner shrugged and looked away, absently grabbing a cup and leaning over the counter to fill it with ice and Coke. "There isn't much to tell," he told them, calmly filling his drink as though he served himself every day. "We fell in, we couldn't climb out, we had to wander around in these tunnels for ages before we got out."

"Tunnels—that's odd," Sam said. "I mean, usually a sinkhole's just a sinkhole. Doesn't make sense, there being a network of tunnels out in the middle of nowhere."

Conner shrugged and snapped a lid on his drink. "Well, maybe there were just so many sinkholes so close together, they became tunnels or something. I don't know. All I know is it really sucked, and we fell in right after Ethan mentioned something about the urban legends. Did you guys find anything weird?"

"Not yet. This friend of yours, who lives by the sinkholes, who was that?"

"Dr. O. He was supervising our detention when we fell in, and he was really worried, since he lives out there and stuff."

"He let you guys go wandering alone?" Sam asked.

"Dude, we're seventeen, not seven," Conner said firmly. "I know it looks a little weird, but he's really responsible, and I think he was trying to give us a break. Walking through the woods is much cooler than the usual detention stuff. Would have been great if we hadn't fallen in that stupid hole. He even offered to cancel our detention if we found anything prehistoric. Besides, it was his first day teaching; he probably didn't know all the rules yet, and we weren't about to turn down hanging out in the woods."

"His first day, they made him supervise detention?" Dean repeated, frowning.

"Yeah. Principal Randall forced it on him last minute. She's a real witch sometimes, you know?" Conner said. "It was her first day too, come to think of it. Dr. O tried to get out of it by saying he wanted to go check out the museum, and she was just all, 'take them with you!' He even had to take us in his Jeep." Conner shrugged. "Like I said, they probably just didn't know the rules very well. First day and all."

Sam and Dean looked at each other. First day or not, it didn't take a genius or a thirty-year veteran of public school teaching to see that it wasn't quite kosher to send three kids to a museum for detention without parental approval with a guy who had only been with the school for a matter of hours. Still, Conner made fair points, and with a nod at each other, they decided to turn back to the sinkholes.

"So you want to come check them out with us?" Sam asked casually. Neither he nor Dean had any intention of bringing Conner along—it was Conner's reaction they were looking for.

"Where? Oh, to the sinkholes? Don't be stupid. No _way_ am I going back out there. And seriously, guys, you shouldn't either. Like Dr. O said, you could break a leg or run into Tyrannodrones."

"Just how dangerous are these Tyrannodrones?" Dean asked.

Conner shrugged again. "Only the Power Rangers tango with them, if that gives you any idea. They're pretty tough. Not as tough as Mesogog's monsters, but still a bit much for a human. And they usually travel in packs."

Conner checked his watch, sighed heavily, and picked up his drink, idly pushing his straw in and out of the lid so that it squeaked loudly. He looked past Sam and Dean at something with a strained smile. Dean turned his head slightly and thought he saw Hayley giving Conner a sympathetic look out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned his head fully she had her back to them and was speaking to a customer.

The conversation at the table lulled, and Conner became increasingly distracted—which worried his cousins greatly. Every time they'd come to see Conner and Eric, both twins were extremely talkative—in fact, Dean and Sam rarely got more than a word or two in during the first six or seven hours of visiting. Conner and Eric would ramble and rant and tell them basically everything that had happened in the past few months, no matter how mundane. One was only quiet when the other was talking, and Sam and Dean usually only got to speak when they were breaking up the customary "It's _my_ turn to talk!" argument. Without Eric, they had expected Conner to be a little less chatty (after all, the most important conversations in the world were the ones told before one's brother could tell them first), but here he was, Sam and Dean completely at his disposal, and Conner was staring into space quietly, looking slightly worried.

"Something wrong, man?" Sam asked, equal parts curiosity and concern.

"Huh? No. Just… Mom'll be mad that I got detention."

Sam and Dean looked at each other grimly. Aunt Becky rarely got mad. She was too unconventional for things like anger. Her parenting methods had always been summed up by the poster on her living room wall: "Rules are breakable, so keep them out of reach of children." She was not the sort of person to be upset by something like her son getting detention.

Dean started to say something, but just then the same strange beep sounded again. Conner jumped as if he'd been burned. "I have to pee!" he announced, with the air of one trained to proclaim some random phrase at the sound of a bell. Before either Winchester could reply, Conner had dashed off.

"What was _that?"_ Dean demanded.

"Wasn't Hayley's cell phone," Sam said with a smirk. Hayley was halfway across the café, and hadn't even heard the beep. "Did you notice that when she got that call from the museum guy, her phone wasn't lit up or vibrating or anything?"

"Yeah. I also noticed that Conner just went into the girl's restroom." Dean sighed. "And what's this about Aunt Becky being mad at him? The woman used to let me stay up until four in the morning when I was twelve."

"She's not much for punctuality, either," Sam agreed.

"It sounds like one of those things we used to say when we were in high school," Dean said. "You know, like that time I said Dad didn't allow visitors on school nights so that you wouldn't bring over your little drama friends. You know?"

Sam nodded. "Dad could have cared less, but it sounded a lot better than, 'You can't come over because my stupid older brother left half our handgun collection on the kitchen table when we left for school this morning.'"

"Actually, that was just the excuse I fed _you,"_ Dean corrected. "Sounded a lot better than, 'No way are you bringing a bunch of drama geeks into my house.'"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Point is, he's gotten used to feeding people lines at some point. Making excuses that can be blamed on strict parents or homework."

Dean frowned. Something had just occurred to him. "Hey, Sam? Did Eric say what kind of private school he's in? Or its name, or anything?"

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Not that can think of, no."

"Eric's, what, a D, maybe C student?"

"Yeah."

"And yet he managed to get accepted to a private school."

Sam blinked. "Good point." He frowned. "But… what does that mean? That our entire family has some weird secret?"

"No… I think it means they've all got different secrets," Dean said. "Just one more thing to think about. Eric's off in some private school that we know nothing about, he wants Conner to join him, Conner's busy hanging with his new friends and acting shifty and on top of all that, we've got sinkhole monsters."

"You forgot the bit about the science teacher and the principal conspiring to lure people out into the woods to be eaten. Oh, and possible Power Rangers."

Dean grimaced. _"Power Rangers,"_ he scoffed. "Now I know what you meant when you said you missed conversations that didn't start with 'this killer truck.'"

Sam grinned. "It's kind of sad when Power Rangers aren't any less believable than demons, ghosts and magic circles."

"Jury's still out for me on whether or not they exist," Dean said firmly. Before he could continue, however, Conner came dashing up, moving so fast it seemed as if he was coming out of nowhere.

"Guys! Um, listen, I just remembered I forgot something really important at school," Conner said quickly. "I'll be back as fast as I can, okay?"

Sam pointed at his watch. "We're supposed to be at your place in about a half hour."

"I know. I know. I'll be back as fast as I can." Conner flung his book bag on his shoulder and hefted the soccer ball under his arm.

"Want us to come with you?" Dean asked.

"No, no, that's okay. Tell Mom I had to go back to school and that I might be late for dinner; I'll meet you there, but it might take me a while to find someone to let me in if they've already locked up and if I can't get in I'll have to go swing by the museum and find Dr. O and use his keys… save me some fried potatoes, okay?"

"Conner—" Sam began, but Conner was already running for the door.

"Bye, guys!" Conner yelled over his shoulder.

"Should we follow him to the school?" Sam asked.

"He'd recognize the Impala."

"If he's worried about getting caught, he might, yeah. Maybe he doesn't think we'll follow him."

Hayley suddenly appeared right next to them. "Hey, guys. Can I get you anything else?"

"No, thanks," Sam said politely.

"Are you sure? We have some great smoothies. And Conner's always raving about the muffins. My cookies are big sellers, too."

"We're about to go eat dinner," Dean told her. "In fact, we should get going."

"Well, how about something for the road? On me. Since you offered to help with the truck tonight."

"Really, that's okay. It's our pleasure. But, uh, we don't want to be late, and Aunt Becky lives a good fifteen minutes away, so… thanks anyway," Sam told her.

Hayley's eyes darted to the window and then back to him. "Okay. Well, I'll see you in a few hours. It was great meeting you."

"You, too," Dean and Sam chorused, then walked swiftly towards the door.

"She's in on it," Dean said as they headed for the parking lot in the back.

"She was stalling," Sam agreed. "She's smooth, too. We'll have to watch out for her."

"No complaints here," Dean said with a grin. "Come on. We've probably lost him, but if we swing by the school on the way to Aunt Becky's we can at least confirm he's lying to us."

They broke out into a jog, Dean ahead of Sam so that when Dean came to a sudden halt Sam nearly crashed into him. "Look," Dean said, nodding at a classic red-and-black Chevy parked across the aisle and a few spaces down from the Impala.

"It's a very nice car, Dean," Sam said in exasperation, sidestepping around his brother to avoid any more near-collisions. "Now let's go."

"Dude, it's Conner's car," Dean said, rolling his eyes. "How many patrons who drive '68 Cameros could one café have?"

Sam raised his eyebrows. "So he hasn't left yet."

"That… or he just didn't take his car." Frowning, Dean headed over to the car and peeked in the windows. Conner's backpack and soccer ball had been thrown in the passenger seat, but Conner was nowhere to be seen.

"Why wouldn't he take his car?" Sam wondered aloud. "Even if he wasn't going to the school… he's not staying at the café, and there's not much of interest on Broad Street, just office buildings and fast food joints, a couple of car lots…"

Dean wasn't listening, moving up the aisle, peeking into windows as he went. He found what he was looking for in an opened-top Jeep six spots away. "Sam! Come here."

"What?"

Dean lifted out Kira's acoustic guitar by the neck. "How much do you think this worth? Two, three, four hundred bucks?"

"You looking to pawn it?" Sam asked blankly.

Dean rolled his eyes. "This is their stuff. Tommy, Kira and Ethan's. This guitar's pretty well-made, probably expensive, probably has a lot of sentimental value. And Ethan put his laptop in here." He held up Ethan's backpack. "What would make a music lover and a computer geek ditch their very valuable stuff in an opened-top Jeep and take off? This town might be pretty crime-free, but that doesn't mean you leave stuff this important out where any local teenager could see it and wander off with it."

Sam digested this. "Not unless you're in a hurry, and you're more worried about appearances than about your stuff." He sighed. "So there's no museum fossil shipment. No object forgotten in Conner's locker or whatever. And whatever's going down, it's important enough for wannabe rock star girl and 'Master Hacker' to risk losing things they can't live without."

Dean shook his head and smiled sarcastically. "Gee, Sammy, this job's gonna be _fun."_


	4. Family Secrets

**Chapter Four**

_Family Secrets_

"What do we got?" Ethan asked Tommy in a low voice as Ethan, Tommy and Kira carelessly tossed their belongings in Tommy's Jeep before dashing out of the parking lot.

"Tyrannodrones," Tommy replied tersely. "Downtown, in Santa Luisa Square. It's only about a mile from here."

"No monster yet?" Kira asked.

"No, just Tyrannodrones. Speaking of which—Ethan, what were you _thinking?"_

Ethan cringed. "It was back before we became Rangers. We were on our way back from that field trip, we'd just gotten the Gems, I was freaked. So I posted on the same urban legend site that I heard about the sinkholes. I didn't mention anything about the Gems, Dr. O."

"Even so, there are a lot of people who will say, 'Freaky lizard monsters? Cool!' and go running off to search those sinkholes now," Tommy said grimly. "There's a good chance someone could stumble onto the lab. Someone else."

"I made that post back in September," Ethan pointed out. "It's almost February. No one's found us yet."

"But someone could," Tommy said with a sigh. "Did either of you tell anyone else?"

"No," Kira assured him. "Not even the band."

"Me either."

"All right," Tommy said with a sigh. "Who's this Eric guy that Conner told about the sinkholes? The one who asked Sam and Dean if they'd heard anything. Do you know him?"

"Eric? He's Conner's identical twin," Ethan explained. "He used to come to the DDR tournaments at Cyberspace before he got transferred to private school. Wasn't into any other games, though; apparently he's just into dancing. He got kicked out of the private school right before we became Rangers, but Conner told me he got back in a couple weeks later."

"It wasn't a private school, remember?" Kira pointed out. "Eric's in some secret school for ninjas or something. Conner told us when we were watching that tape on ex-Rangers, back when Dr. O was kidnapped. Dr. O, there's an alley up ahead. Should we slip in there and m—Dr. O?"

Ethan and Kira skidded to a halt. Tommy was no longer beside them. He had completely frozen half a block behind them. "Dr. O?" Kira called as she and Ethan jogged back to him. "You okay?"

Tommy had a somewhat horrified look on his face. "Are you—" Tommy paused and swallowed heavily. "Are you telling me that there's _two_ of _Conner?"_

Ethan clapped a sympathetic hand on Tommy's shoulder. "We know, Dr. O. We know."

"Work past the pain," Kira added dryly. "And realize that Conner's evil twin didn't write _you_ love poems for the entirety of eighth grade."

Tommy's jaw dropped at this tale of woe, and he spontaneously threw his arms around her in a hug, a hug full of all the support, sympathy and compassion that Tommy could muster. He held her for a few moments while Ethan smiled brightly at a group of kids from their first period science class who were currently walking by and staring at the strange scene in open-mouthed shock. Tommy finally pulled back and sniffed, his body language firmly stating, "That didn't just happen. Honest." "Okay. Dealing," Tommy said calmly.

"We good?" Kira asked in the same clear, calm tone.

"Yup."

"And off we go," Ethan said as the three of them darted into the alley and went through their morphing sequences.

Shortly thereafter, the Blue, Yellow and Black Rangers arrived in Santa Luisa Square, where pedestrians were panicking or gawking at the thirty or so Tyrannodrones, who were chasing the civilians or knocking over trashcans and newsstands, obviously just waiting until the Dino Rangers responded to their call of, "Hey, we're here to draw you out so the monster can get you, hurry it up, please." Tommy dove straight into the largest group near the center of the square, while Kira and Ethan split up and started attacking the Drones scattered around the edges, forcing them back to the center. The few pedestrians dumb enough to hang around and watch retreated to the safety of the surrounding buildings.

They still had roughly twenty-five drones to go when an energy blast hit Tommy in the back, sending him flying. He landed hard in the Santa Louisa fountain, sending water splashing out into the courtyard. Tommy quickly pushed himself up, grimacing at the slight twinge in his back which he knew he'd be feeling once he demorphed, probably for days. He turned to see Zeltrax standing several feet away, sword braced on his shoulder.

"We meet again, Dr. Oliver," Zeltrax growled.

"Aw, did ya miss me, Zeltrax?" Tommy asked, smirking inside his helmet. With that, he leaped out of the fountain and went straight into a jump-kick that Zeltrax dodged just at the right moment. Tommy went sailing past, landing lightly and summoning his Brachio Staff.

Tommy was just about to call for an Energy Orb when something large and yellow came out of nowhere, slamming into him and sending him skittering across the tiled courtyard. It wasn't until Kira landed next to him with a groan that he realized she'd been thrown into him.

"Kira! You okay?"

"Monster's over there," she replied sourly. He helped her up, regarding the monster of the moment—it was large, purple and brown, and covered in fur with four large whip-like vines for each arm; Tommy would guess octopus mixed with grizzly bear, but he couldn't be sure. Kira rubbed her shoulder for a moment before whipping out her Ptera Grips and rushing at it. Tommy glanced at Ethan, but he was now surrounded by close to twenty Tyrannodrones. With a sigh, Tommy smacked at his communicator through his suit to contact Conner; they were too divided as it was. Tommy could probably handle Zeltrax, but there were a few too many Drones on Ethan and the monster was a bit much for just Kira. He doubted he'd be able to switch places with either of the other Rangers; Zeltrax only had eyes for the Black Ranger, so if Tommy ordered Kira or Ethan to fight him, Zeltrax would get past them the moment he had a chance and Tommy would be sucker-punched or worse. It didn't really matter; he didn't like the thought of leaving one of the others alone against Zeltrax, they'd probably need the Z-Rex Blaster at some point, and they'd have to call Conner for that anyway. Better to eliminate the risk, now that things had gone sour.

Tommy attacked Zeltrax again, and was locked sword-hilt-to-staff when Conner beeped in. "Dr. O?"

Tommy used the momentary distraction to slam his foot into Zeltrax's kneecap and shove him away. "Conner! I'm sorry, but—"

"It's cool. Where?"

"Santa Luisa Square."

"I'm on my way," Conner said quickly. Tommy breathed a sigh of relief and threw himself back at Zeltrax.

Conner arrived as a red blur a few moments later, knocking out three of Ethan's Tyrannodrones as he blew by before running full-speed into the monster sparring with Kira.

"About time!" Kira called gratefully.

"You're welcome," Conner replied cheerfully. "Go help Ethan!"

From there on out, it was a short fight. Kira and Ethan incapacitated the last twelve Drones and ran to help with Zeltrax, who quickly booked the moment it became three-on-one.

"Let's make this quick, guys," Conner called as he motioned for Kira and Ethan to combine their weapons with his. "My mom's making fried potatoes for dinner."

Tommy raised his wrist to his mouth and prepared to call for his Brachiozord. They waited expectantly for the sky to darken, waited for the Hydro-Regenerator's strange acid rain to reform the monster, waited for the usual. And waited. And waited some more.

"Um… what part of 'make this quick' does Mesogog not get?" Conner demanded, looking up at the sky in irritation and confusion.

Tommy shrugged. "Must not be coming this time."

The three teens paused and stared at him doubtfully.

"That can't happen," Conner said uncertainly. "Can it?"

"Believe me, it can," Tommy said. "It's rare, though." He gestured at the remains. "Let's blast these up and get out of here."

The others muttered to themselves as they blasted apart the large purple blobs. "If this'll stop him from using that rainmaker thingy, why don't we do this all the time?" Ethan asked.

"Don't think it _will_ stop him," Tommy replied. "But if he's not planning to use it any time soon, we need to break up the remnants. All we need is an innocent bystander deciding it might be fun to take home a chunk of monster meat and having god knows what eating them alive after Mesogog activates the Regenerator."

"Who in their right minds would want to take home a chunk of monster?" Ethan demanded.

"Gross," Kira added, shaking her hands as if trying to throw off something slimy.

"Come on, follow me, let's find a place to power down at," Tommy said, watching warily as several onlookers began to venture back out into the square.

"I need to get home," Conner pointed out.

"We need to have a little _chat_ first," Tommy told him grimly. Conner sighed; as Tommy had guessed, Conner had been hoping to use his cousins to get out of being chastised.

They ran off, running as fast as possible for the closest bit of forest, where Tommy motioned for them to demorph as soon as they were far enough inside the cover of the trees. "Okay, before you say anything, I want to point out that I'm really sorry about the sinkhole post," Ethan said, with a "please don't scold me" sort of tone.

"I know. Back then, you all weren't aware of how serious something like that could be." Tommy sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You need to delete that post as soon as possible; hopefully, if they look at that page again, they'll think they were mistaken."

"Most people who surf that site don't look at the legends anymore. They're all talking in the Power Ranger forum now," Ethan said. "Even _I_ haven't been out of the PR forum since then."

"Good. Hopefully there haven't been a whole lot of people looking for fun in a sinkhole since then."

"They're actually harder to find than you'd think," Conner said. "When I was thinking about quitting, it took us a while to find that entrance. Back before you told us about the real way to get in."

"Yeah, and even then those tunnels are confusing," Kira added. "So once someone got in them, they'd still have a hard time finding the lab."

"I'm surprised _we_ did," Ethan said.

"That's destiny for you," Tommy said with a smile. "Always letting random kids in my basement." The others chuckled.

"Maybe you should just seal off the back exit to the lab," Conner said. "You know, just to be safe."

Tommy shook his head. "Too risky."

"How is that risky?" Ethan asked.

"I built that exit for a reason. The Command Center and the Power Chamber from my old days got breached often enough to make it obvious that we needed a second exit. Especially since we don't have the ability to teleport—teleporting was all that saved our lives the first time the Command Center blew. This way, there's another way out if something happens, and another way in if the lab is ever taken over."

"How likely is that?" Kira asked, slightly alarmed.

Tommy shrugged. "I broke into the Command Center twice before Rita's spell was broken. Did some serious damage, too. It's not all that likely, and I've got a lot of security, but it's possible enough to warrant consideration." Tommy sighed again and sat down on a rock. "I've taken just about every precaution I can with them. Removed the skeleton and put in that hidden keypad, for instance. But once someone gets into the tunnels, they'll know _something_ is down there, and there's no hiding that. The main problem is that the tunnels are obviously manmade. The sinkholes aren't extremely common, but they're not exactly rare. As soon as someone falls in, they'll probably guess the tunnels are there for a reason, especially if they're looking for it, like your cousins, Conner."

"Hey," Ethan said, "do _you_ know anything about that guy who fell in a giant sinkhole out there?"

Tommy pursed his lips. "Yeah. That was _me._ Anton and a few of our colleagues were walking through the woods by the museum, discussing a business proposal, and I fell into what was probably the only natural sinkhole out there. Anton freaked out and called the fire department. I suppose it's just as well; we weren't alone, and people might have wondered if I'd jumped or even climbed out. Where do you think I got the idea for those tunnels?"

_"You_ built them?" Kira asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Back before Anton 'disappeared,' when we were still working on our experiments together, we built the underground lab and the house above it. Anton and I were having a lot of problems with storms keeping us from getting out to the island or forcing us to evacuate at inconvenient times. Anton figured we could take small projects there and work on them when we couldn't use the island base. Anything dangerous—like the Tyrannodrones—were better left on the island, but basic computer work and whatnot could be done from anywhere. After he disappeared, a lawyer came to me and told me that the house and land were to go to me should anything happen to Anton. When the island sank, we hadn't brought in a lot of the experiments yet; the lab was barely finished. Hayley helped me complete it and transform it into my own little base."

"That's why you got a job in Reefside," Ethan finished. "So you could be closer to your experiments."

Tommy nodded. "Yeah. I wasn't comfortable leaving the Gems unguarded in the basement for days on end, and I was looking for a teaching job anyway—that's where most paleontologists end up." He smiled sardonically. "Not a whole lot of people are looking to hire when your last employer 'disappeared' and your entire facility sank into the ocean. I was lucky to get in here at all, especially since I had to go back to racing after the island blew."

"Racing?" Conner asked blankly.

"Race-car driving. Dr. O used to be a stock car driver," Ethan explained. Tommy shot him a questioning look. Ethan coughed, slightly wide-eyed. "Not that I happened to hack into any records or anything. I just asked Hayley. Honest."

"Right." Tommy shook his head ruefully.

"Wait, so, our lab was all built by Trent's dad? Why not just use his big old mansion for your experiments?" Kira asked.

"He didn't have one in Reefside back then. I was pretty shocked to find out that he lived here; I hadn't seen or heard from him since the island sank until that day he came to pick Trent up from the café. I thought he was dead and the company had been sold, until I saw the company logo at the museum. Maybe he just didn't know how to contact me or something," Tommy said with a shrug.

"Sounds a little weird," Conner said.

"Anton's a lot weird. He's brilliant, but he's as eccentric as they come. Anyway, back to the issue at hand. Conner's got family in town, and family who's a little too curious for comfort. Conner, have you told them anything else Ranger-related?"

"Nothing. I didn't even tell _them_ about the sinkholes."

"You told Eric," Tommy said sternly.

"Well, yeah," Conner said, rubbing the back of his neck. "But… it's not like I told him everything. And I don't see why I couldn't. He's my twin; I can trust him. Besides, it's not like he can't keep secrets. He's going to a super-secret ninja school."

Tommy cocked his head at him. "A super-secret ninja school that he told you about?"

"Well, he _had_ to tell us. He wasn't eighteen, and the school talks to the parents of anyone who isn't a legal adult that they want to let in to the program."

"And you told Kira and Ethan about this school?"

"Yeah. And Hayley. So?"

"You told people you could trust," Tommy pointed out. "But you still _told_ people. If one of us _hadn't_ been trustworthy, then it wouldn't still be a _secret_ ninja school. The point I'm trying to make here is this—knowing who to trust, and who not to trust, isn't always easy. Jason, for example, thought I was trustworthy when he invited me to hang out after school. But I'd become evil by that point, and I betrayed him, captured him, and tried to kill him. I might have succeeded, too, if the others hadn't saved him. I was seconds away from murdering the first Red Power Ranger ever to walk the earth." The three teens stared at him, looking slightly pale at this sobering story. Tommy had to fight off a smile, knowing he'd gotten through to them. "I'm not saying your brother would tell anyone, Conner. Or your cousins. Or your parents. But if one of them did, it would be disastrous. We can't tell anyone, understand?"

Tommy stood up and brushed the dirt off the seat of his pants. "We should be getting back. Conner's late for dinner, and I've got a few things I need to do before helping Hayley with the truck tonight." He paused and looked at them each in turn. "Until Conner's cousins are gone, be very careful. Parents are one thing—they're not around eighty percent of the time. But I'm guessing these two are going to be hanging out with you a lot, Conner?"

"They're almost like brothers," he confirmed.

"Whenever you're around them, be careful," Tommy warned. "They're already suspicious of us; I can tell. I don't think they have much of an idea that we're Power Rangers, but this sinkhole business can get tricky. Now, I won't lie to you—sometimes people find out. People make mistakes. But family members and friends of Rangers are targets—even more so when they know about the Rangers. The bad guys will use anything to get to us. So stay on your guard, and keep these guys at a distance. Any luck, our identities will still be secret by the time they leave."

* * *

"So you think Aunt Becky knows Conner's deep dark secret?" Dean asked as he parked the Impala in McKnight's driveway. For the thirtieth time, Dean glanced at the sky, watching for giant robot feet. Tommy's line about cars getting stepped on had deeply affected Dean, especially after they'd had to take quite a detour; part of downtown had been sectioned off and a traffic cop near Santa Luisa Square had told them there'd been a monster attack, and they'd just missed the Power Rangers. Dean had grumbled the whole way back to the house about pseudo-superheroes, which, in Sam's opinion, wasted a lot of valuable theory time—one of their last chances to discuss things without Conner around.

"Maybe. She's pretty insightful," Sam said. He smiled. "I wonder if she knows _Dad's_ deep dark secret."

"Well, I wouldn't go asking," Dean said darkly. "He'd kill us if he thought we'd slipped in front of her."

"Yeah, if he ever plans on speaking to us again," Sam muttered irritably.

Aunt Becky came out onto the porch just as they were heading up the sidewalk. She was a tall, willowy woman who almost always dressed in long, flowing skirts, gauzy shirts and sandals. Her hair was long, the same color as her sons', and she usually kept it braided or let it hang down in loose waves past her waist. She was a total hippy, all about meditation and love and saving Mother Earth. It was odd to think of this ditsy, sweet, and laidback woman as their father's sister.

"My boys!" she exclaimed, smiling. "It's so good to see you!"

"Hi, Aunt Becky!" they chorused, allowing her to pull them into a group hug.

"Come on in, dinner's on the table," she said. "I figured I'd make steak and corn on the cob to go with the potatoes. Conner's already here."

"Yeah, he said he'd meet us here," Sam said, surprised. They had swung by the school, on the off-chance that Conner had walked there, but the school was deserted save for a janitor who was on his way out the door and claimed he hadn't seen Conner since he'd locked up after detention had let out. Sam and Dean shared a glance, wondering how Conner had beaten them home, especially without taking his car; they knew he hadn't retrieved it, as it hadn't been in the driveway when they'd pulled up.

"Steak?" Dean asked, looking fairly close to tears. Sam rolled his eyes; it appeared mysteries could wait until after dinner, as far as Dean was concerned.

"Dude!" Conner called. He was already sitting at the kitchen table, bouncing in his chair and eyeing the dishes of food laid out on the table.

"Go ahead and sit down, boys," Aunt Becky told Sam and Dean. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"You got beer?" Dean asked hopefully as they sat down, waiting for Aunt Becky to join them before serving themselves (which took more willpower than either boy had used on anything in a long time).

"Sure do. Went to the corner store and got your favorite as soon as you called," she replied. Sam blinked, startled; Aunt Becky had never let them drink before, with the occasional exception on New Year's when they were in their teens. He reminded himself, however, that he hadn't made a visit to the McKnights with Dean after Dean's twenty-first birthday, as Sam had left home halfway through his senior year, staying with friends to finish out high school and then leaving for Stanford. Aunt Becky was extremely laidback, but she didn't believe in drug use, smoking or underage drinking; she was fond of saying that if one wanted an unhealthy addiction, there was always chocolate. "Sam, you want one, too?"

"Nah, I'll take whatever Conner's having."

"Red Kool-Aid," Conner said promptly. Sam grinned. At least some things didn't change.

"So what took you guys so long? Did you guys get stuck in the detour?" asked Conner, still bouncing excitedly in his chair.

"Yeah. Took us a while to find a way around it."

"You have to know where to go," Conner told them.

"What road did you take?" Sam asked as he and Dean pulled out chairs.

"I didn't. Figured I'd leave my car at the café, since I have to go back tonight and help with the truck."

"You _walked_ all the way here?" Sam asked incredulously. Though Conner probably could have made the trip shorter as far as distance went, it was still quite a ways from Conner's house to the café. Sam guessed it to be about seven or eight miles, though it was hard to tell, as Hayley's Cyberspace was on the edge of downtown so there was a lot of zigzagging down one-way streets. Regardless of how long the drive took, the walk should have been longer.

Conner paused in his bouncing for a second, then went right back to it. "Nah, I caught a ride with Dr. O when he was dropping Kira and Ethan back off at the café," Conner explained. "I figured I'd just ride with you guys back, since you offered to help with the truck."

"I can't believe he beat us here," Sam said, frowning. "How'd _he_ get around the detour?"

Conner paused again, then shrugged. "It was kind of a blur. Dr. O drives pretty fast. He used to race stock cars."

"Really? What's he doing teaching high school?" Dean asked, frowning.

Conner shrugged again. "I don't know. He's a dinosaur fanatic; that probably had something to do with it."

"So you hang out with Dr. O a lot?" Sam asked, accepting his cup of Kool-Aid.

"Yeah, well, he's been friends with Hayley since college, and Ethan idolizes Hayley, so we all got to talking a lot."

Dean started to ask something, but Aunt Becky interrupted him by handing him his beer. "Thank god," he muttered. Despite the tastiness of his frappuccino, a lack of beer when he first wanted one made him extra grateful for its arrival.

Any further questions about Tommy, or Conner's surprisingly fast arrival, would have to wait. The moment Becky sat it was as if a gong had gone off to the three boys; Dean was quick to slap Sam's hand away from the serving spoon in the fried potatoes, but he quickly made it to the bowl of corn on the cob before Dean could finish piling on the potatoes. Conner managed to stick an arm and his entire head under Sam's arm so he could zero in on the best steak on the other side of the table. Becky smiled to herself and leaned back, waiting until the boys had stopped their little ritual fight before serving herself.

"So Sam, honey," Aunt Becky began as soon as there was more on their plates than in the serving dishes, "why'd you decide to take some time off from school? I thought you wanted to graduate as fast as you could."

Sam went still for a moment, aware that they were all watching him, Becky and Conner curious, Dean hoping he'd come up with something halfway decent to say.

Sam forced another bite of food into his mouth, refusing to let thinking about Jess ruin his meal. "My, uh, my girlfriend died."

"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry," Becky told him, laying a hand on his arm.

"That really bites, dude," Conner added. As if trying to cheer Sam up, he took another spoonful of potatoes and put it on Sam's plate. Sam grinned at the gesture; that was probably the nicest thing Conner could have done at that point, although he doubted anyone else would have thought of it.

"Thanks," he said.

"What happened?" Aunt Becky asked gently. "If you don't mind my asking."

"Our apartment caught fire," Sam told her quietly. "She didn't make it out. So I left school, went road-tripping with Dean… needed some time, you know?"

"Of course, honey. Has your road trip been fun?"

"Oh, yeah," Sam said quickly, desperate to change the subject. "I mean, we got to go… camping."

"Yeah, in Colorado," Dean added, trying not to laugh as he tried picturing the look on her face if he continued to say that they'd been fighting a Wendigo while "camping."

"Swam in Lake Manitoc up in Wisconsin," Sam said. "Saw some cool antique stores in Toledo."

"Met this nice country family up in Minnesota just a few weeks ago."

Sam glared at Dean for that one, knowing he meant the creepy family who'd kidnapped him. "Dean got along well with their daughter."

Dean acknowledged the blow and retorted with, "And Sammy met a nice girl named Constance out in California."

"Yeah, and we went through this town with _great_ apple pie." Before Dean could reply, Sam figured it was time to back out of their little sparring match before things got any uglier. "And we went back to Kansas, saw the old place."

"Really? Oh, wow. How was it?" Aunt Becky asked. "I haven't been back to Kansas since before the boys were born."

"It was… fine. We met Dad's friend Missouri," Sam said.

"Missouri? Oh, how's she doing? She was such a sweetheart."

"She's… fine. Unique woman," Dean said carefully.

"She threatened Dean with a spoon," Sam couldn't resist saying.

Aunt Becky laughed. "Sounds like her."

"Who's Missouri?" Conner asked.

"Old friend of Uncle Johnny's and mine," she replied. "One of the best psychics I ever met. Never liked your father."

"A psychic?" Conner repeated skeptically. Though his mother was deeply immersed in natural remedies, meditation and psychic ability, neither Conner nor Eric were believers. "Come _on,_ Mom."

Aunt Becky smiled, shaking her head. "She told me at my wedding that one day my brother would be threatening to shoot your daddy. Boy, did she hit _that_ nail on the head." Conner's father had left them shortly after Conner and Eric's seventh birthday, but had refused to sign divorce papers so that he could avoid paying child support. John had hunted him down—quite literally—and made him see reason. And made him see down the barrel of a shotgun. Half an hour later, Becky had her divorce papers, and he'd never missed a child support payment since.

She started asking more about Missouri and Kansas, and soon she was telling them all funny stories of the early days of her marriage and tales of John's childhood and teen years that both Sam and Dean knew their father would never admit to. They spent hours just chatting around the kitchen table, until Conner looked at the clock and sat upright with a start.

"We need to go," he blurted out. "We promised Hayley we'd help her out tonight."

"Oh, that's right, it's truck day, isn't it." Aunt Becky shook her head. "And here I thought you were just trying to get out of doing the dishes."

"I'll do them when I get back, Mom, I promise." Conner pushed out his chair.

"Okay. Did you get your homework done?"

"Come on, Mom, it's Friday night," Conner said.

"Just try to get it done by Sunday," she said, smiling fondly at him. She looked at her nephews. "You two going with him?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. I'll set some blankets out; I'll probably be asleep when you get back."

They all hugged her goodbye, and she waved at them from the porch as they left in the Impala. The moment they were out of sight, the smile faded from her face and she hurried inside.

Though she was a hopelessly disorganized person, it didn't take her long to find her brother's new phone number. He'd told her that Sam and Dean weren't to have it, that he needed to distance himself from the boys for a while, so she spent a few moments memorizing it before stuffing it out of sight, where neither boy would find it. As far as she knew, only a handful of people had his direct number—Jim Murphy, Bobby Singer and Missouri Moseley among them.

John answered on the second ring. "Becca?"

"Hey, Johnny. How's it going?"

"Fine. Look, is this important? I'm in the middle of some research."

"No. I was just wondering if your boys are in the middle of some research."

"Excuse me?"

"Sam and Dean showed up on my doorstep out of the blue. Claimed they were looking for a hot meal, but I'm wondering if they've got something else on their minds."

She could practically hear John frowning over the phone. "Well, there's not much activity out by Reefside," he said after a long pause. "Most of the weird things out there were explained when those Power Ranger lunatics showed up. I know I didn't send them out that way, if that's what you're asking."

Becky flopped on the couch and rubbed a hand over her eyes. "I don't know what I'm asking. Maybe I'm just a little too suspicious lately."

"Of what?"

"Conner. He's been acting funny, ever since Eric went back to that school. At least, since somewhere in there. He doesn't date much, hangs out with his new friends all the time, always runs off at strange moments. He's gotten secretive, started having nightmares more, making strange excuses."

"Anything else?" John asked, concerned.

"He doesn't want to go to Eric's school anymore. Said it was because of soccer, but then he went and turned down a spot with the Reefside Wave. I don't know…" She sighed. "This family's always had secrets, John. You're off hunting ghosts and demons, Eric's actually seriously studying to become a _ninja,_ of all the things… but I can't figure out Conner. And now Sam and Dean have just wandered into town, casual as can be, and I just… I've gotten so used to strange family secrets that Conner being dishonest is worrying me. I guess I just wanted to know if Sam and Dean might be here to do some digging into the same thing Conner's into."

"Conner's probably not into anything," John assured her. "Becca, when Sammy left, I thought Dean had become a completely different person. Took me a while to realize that Dean just wasn't used to not having Sammy around. That's probably what Conner's deal is—he doesn't have his brother to play off of. Don't worry about it."

"You're probably right. But let me know if you find anything out here the boys could be into."

"I will."

They said their goodbyes and Becky hung up. True, Eric leaving had probably changed Conner. But Conner had seemed like the same old kid when Eric had been kicked out of school and come back. It wasn't until Eric had left again that Conner had started to act truly strange.

Sam and Dean's arrival had taken her totally by surprise. The boys had never known she knew all about John's ghost hunting, primarily because the subject matter wasn't something she wanted Conner and Eric to know about and because John had always tried to teach them to keep things quiet, even from people they cared about, in the hopes that they wouldn't go spilling every detail of their life to every pretty girl or any good friends. Becky also thought it was nice for the boys to have a "normal" place to go, a place that they could be without worrying about demons and vampires and so on.

She sincerely doubted they were here just to see the family. From what she understood from John, the boys hadn't "just" done anything since they'd gotten together and started hunting again. They'd been looking for their father and looking for ghosts ever since John had stopped contacting Dean. So what had prompted them to come to Reefside? And what on Earth was Conner into?

She stood up and headed for the linen closet to get blankets for her houseguests. With any luck, she'd know the answers to both questions before long.

* * *

_End Notes:_ I might should mention that I have no idea what kind of car Conner drives, so I randomly picked on that looked similar. I'm not a bit expert on classic cars. 


End file.
